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Have you ever wanted to make something work better? The first graders at Frick Environmental Charter School did; from December to February, they identified problems in their classrooms and worked to invent solutions for those problems. MAKESHOP Teaching Artists worked with the first graders throughout their process via FaceTime chats, in-class sessions, and a field trip that brought the students into our workshop. In

A couple of weeks ago a group of Kindergarteners and their Eighth Grade Buddies visited the Museum to explore the process of weaving. They were furthering their exploration of the history of Native Americans by learning some of the culture’s creative processes. The Eighth Graders and Pre-K students built their own cardboard looms and practiced weaving with pieces of yarn. They also got a chance to explore our

Here is another site for our Mobile MAKESHOP program, Crafton Elementary. We are working with several sites this year to help develop a workshop space or simply introduce the ideas and practices of “making” in different environments. Crafton is a perfect space for one of these Mobile MAKESHOP sites. The school has been experimenting with hands-on learning for a while. The teachers and administration under

Nick (one of our Maker Corps Members) and I got to spend a couple of hours at Shaler Elementary solving a lot of woodworking problems alongside amazing and diligent students. The kids got the chance to experience all of the tools we had brought, along with safe techniques to use them properly. After a lengthy orientation with the tools and processes, the kids were given the freedom to create whatever their hearts d

MAKESHOP was recently transformed into an interactive spaceship. Gary Gardner and his Dream Flight Adventures prototype returned to MAKESHOP for another day of playtesting with our visitors. He has already playtested his program at the Museum and a post describing that visit can be found here. He brought with him a newer version of the flight simulator software that he is currently developing for the Shaler School

A couple of Saturdays ago Gary and Sarah Gardiner of Dream Flight Adventures spent some time in MAKESHOP prototyping a new interactive, educational program. Gary has been developing this interactive software for quite some time and recently he was asked to implement it into a classroom in Shaler Area School District. The program is really fun to experience and I can see it being utilized in lots of ways in a class